Illegal marijuana farms take West's water in 'blatant theft'

Jack Dwyer pursued a dream of getting back to the land by moving in 1972 to an idyllic, tree-studded parcel in Oregon with a creek running through it. From dusty towns to forests in the U.S. West, illegal marijuana growers are taking water in uncontrolled amounts when there often isn't enough to go around for even licensed users. Conflicts about water have long existed, but illegal marijuana farms — which proliferate despite legalization in many Western states — are adding strain during a severe drought.

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  Illegal marijuana farms take West's scarce water

  The Independent
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  Illegal marijuana farms are using up too much water in the Western U.S.

  MarketWatch

Even Steve Bannon Looks Skeptical About Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Latest Claim

In her first year as a member of the House, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene has said a lot of outrageous things. Greene, who has said she believes in the QAnon conspiracy theory but not in the effectiveness of vaccines, was being interviewed on Bannon's “Real America's Voice” podcast when she told the former Trump White House strategist: “I have been the most effective member of Congress this session.” Greene, however, has been unable to do much congressional work since February, when she was stripped of her committee assignments because of her support for racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories, and for advocating the execution prominent Democrats.

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  Watch Steve Bannon’s Epic Side-Eye at Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Claim She’s ‘Most Effective Member of Congress’

  The Wrap
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  Marjorie Taylor Greene calls to shut down the government in wild Steve Bannon interview

  The Independent

Scientists created the world's whitest paint. It could eliminate the need for air conditioning.

The whitest paint in the world has been created in a lab at Purdue University, a paint so white that it could eventually reduce or even eliminate the need for air conditioning, scientists say. The paint has now made it into the Guinness World Records book as the whitest ever made. “When we started this project about seven years ago, we had saving energy and fighting climate change in mind,” said Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, in a statement.

Body composting a 'green' alternative to burial, cremation

In a suburban Denver warehouse tucked between an auto repair shop and a computer recycling business, Seth Viddal is dealing with life and death. “It's a natural process where the body is returned to an elemental level over a short period of time,” said Viddal, who likened the practice to backyard composting of food scraps and yard waste. “This is the same process but done with a human body inside of a vessel, and in our case, in a controlled environment.”

Utah police considered charging Gabby Petito with domestic violence after a fight with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie

Utah police considered charging Gabby Petito - a 22-year-old woman who was reported missing on September 11 - with domestic violence last month following an altercation with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie, but opted not to when she said she didn't intend to hurt him, according to police body camera footage released on Thursday. Petito and Laundrie were pulled over by Moab City Police officers on August 12, about a month before Petito was reported missing by her mother. The couple told police that they had gotten into an argument in Moab that resulted in Petito slapping Laundrie, and Petito told officers she hit Laundrie again when she saw they were being pulled over.

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  Gabby Petito's father asks for public's help in bringing her home safe: 'There is nothing else that matters to me now'

  Yahoo News
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  Police release body camera footage of incident between Gabby Petito and boyfriend

  Washington Examiner

Biden approval drops to lowest of presidency: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Public approval of U.S. President Joe Biden has dropped to the lowest level of his presidency, with Americans appearing to be increasingly critical of his response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll. The national poll, conducted Sept. 15-16, found that 44% of U.S. adults approved of Biden's performance in office, while 50% disapproved and the rest were not sure. While most Americans support the kind of vaccine and mask requirements that Biden has ordered recently to slow the spread of the Delta variant, some Republicans have criticized what they consider to be an overreaction by the White House.

Justice Clarence Thomas says Supreme Court 'may have become the most dangerous' branch of the government

Clarence Thomas argued that justices were overstepping their role in rare public remarks about the court. "The court was thought to be the least dangerous branch, and we may have become the most dangerous," Thomas said. In rare public remarks, Justice Clarence Thomas said on Thursday that the Supreme Court "may have become the most dangerous branch" of the federal government.

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  Clarence Thomas insists supreme court justices do not rule based on politics

  The Guardian
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  Justice Clarence Thomas laments a 'race-obsessed world' in lecture at Notre Dame

  USA TODAY

Right-Wing Activist Laura Loomer Has ‘Brutal’ Case of COVID After Claiming It’s No Worse Than Food Poisoning

Right-wing activist Laura Loomer confirmed this week she has COVID-19 and the symptoms have been “brutal.” In the past, she expressed an interest in contracting the virus so she could prove it's no worse than food poisoning. “Just pray for me please,” she wrote on Gettr, a social media platform launched by Jason Miller, a former spokesperson for Donald Trump.

Texas teen posts images of slain family, then kills self

A South Texas teen who said he killed his family and posted graphic images of their bodies on social media killed himself after officers found him at his home, authorities said Thursday. The Aransas Pass police and San Patricio County sheriff's office say they started investigating after being alerted to the images on social media. They say the teen, identified as 15-year-old William Quince Colburn III, had also threatened to continue the violence at a school.

Anti-Mask Florida Official Dies of COVID—and Takes GOP Software Secrets With Him

Just a day after testing positive for COVID-19, a Florida Republican official who battled against mask mandates, attacked the vaccine, and railed at CDC officials has died in Tampa. Gregg Prentice, who was 61, led the Hillsborough County Election Integrity Committee—and his sudden death has sent the local GOP scrambling as it no longer has access to essential campaign finance software without his help. In a Sept. 14 letter to the Federal Election Commission, the Hillsborough County Republican Executive Committee reported it might not be able to file its monthly financial reports as required—because only Prentice knew how to do it.

New bodycam video shows emotional Gabby Petito after reported fight with fiancé in Utah

New police body camera footage captured a visibly distraught Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito and her fiancé after an alleged physical altercation between them on a cross-country road trip in Utah. It showed an officer talking to Brian Laundrie and an emotional Petito after authorities pulled over their white van near a grocery store in the city, about 140 miles southeast of Provo. Petito could be seen wiping away tears as she told the responding officer she was struggling with her mental health.

California governor signs into law measure to fight housing crisis

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation aimed at combating the state's housing crisis by expanding housing production and aiming to streamline housing approvals. Newsom's office said on Thursday California will put $1.75 billion into what his administration is calling a new California Housing Accelerator, which he claimed will accelerate building 6,500 affordable multi-family units that were stalled for lack of tax-exempt bonds and low-income housing tax credits. "Governor Newsom's California Comeback Plan will lead to over 84,000 new housing units and exits from homelessness, including today's announcement of $1.75 billion in affordable housing funding for the new California Housing Accelerator", his office said in a statement.

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  Gov. Newsom "energized" after defeating recall

  Associated Press Videos
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  California recall could boost Newsom's clout for 2022

  Associated Press

An Alabama couple who trashed vaccines on their YouTube channel died from COVID-19 within 3 weeks of each other

An Alabama couple who opposed COVID-19 vaccines on YouTube died from the disease, AL.com reported. In a video, Dusty and Tristan Graham said the vaccine was "technically not" a vaccine. The couple's channel had 10,000 subscribers before it was removed from YouTube, Social Blade said.

Diners gone wild: Watch an all-out brawl at this upscale Brickell restaurant

Truluck's steakhouse in Brickell is where you go for a nice meal out with a sleek decor, expertly prepared seafood and steaks and spot-on service. But on Friday night, the longtime venerated eatery, with a handful of locations throughout the country, was a scene of absolute chaos as a brawl broke out among diners. The out of control scene captured on a bystander's cellphone looks like something out of an R-rated action movie, not a restaurant where entrees run you $40 and up.

AP FACT CHECK: Biden's shaky claims on jobs, gasoline

Boasting that government policies can make a difference in improving the economy, President Joe Biden went too far Thursday in taking credit for job growth since taking office. Jeffery Born, an energy-markets expert at Northeastern University, said current gasoline prices are partly a result of production and refining capacity that was knocked offline by Hurricane Ida and other factors – even a shortage of tanker drivers.

Eric Trump Asks Question About His Dad, Gets The Same Stinging Response

Eric Trump received a resounding “no” in response to a question posed via a web address he shared Thursday on Twitter. Former President Donald Trump's son posted the URL doyoumissmeyet.com. It linked to a page featuring an image of his father in front of the American flag.

Twitter users just discovered an ‘abandoned’ McDonald’s on a remote island in Alaska: ‘The prices haven’t changed much’

Twitter users are freaking out after discovering the existence of an abandoned McDonald's on an island in Alaska. The fast-food location, which has seemingly been untouched since the 1990s, is on Adak Island, a remote place in the Aleutian Islands, far out into the northern Pacific Ocean. The abandoned McDonald's, meanwhile, spread widely on Twitter thanks to a user named @RealJezebelley.

Kevin McCarthy begged Trump to call Biden on the eve of his inauguration, but Trump refused: book

McCarthy begged Trump to call Biden before his inauguration, a new book says. "Do it for me," McCarthy told Trump, per the book. House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy begged President Donald Trump to call then-President-elect Joe Biden on the eve of his inauguration, but Trump repeatedly rebuffed him.

‘China’s richest woman’ missing for years suddenly reemerges in ‘threatening’ phone calls to family

A real estate mogul dubbed “China's richest woman” before her sudden disappearance in 2017 has recently reached out to her ex-husband. Ascent to wealth: Weihong Duan, who also goes by her English nickname “Whitney,” became a billionaire through Taihong, the real estate development firm she founded in 1996. Duan reportedly grew up in a one-room apartment in a small town in Shandong province.

Black Iowa police chief faces backlash after bringing change

The first Black police chief in Waterloo, Iowa, is facing intense opposition from some current and former officers as he works with city leaders to reform the department, including the removal of its longtime insignia that resembles a Ku Klux Klan dragon. Joel Fitzgerald says his 16-month tenure in Waterloo, a city of 67,000 with a history of racial divisions, is a “case study” for what Black police chiefs face as they seek to build community trust and hold officers to higher standards. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said the attacks were driven by misinformation and racism toward him and his boss, the city's first Black mayor.

Jon Stewart Admits Why He Was Wrong About Donald Trump

Jon Stewart admitted the mistake he made when Donald Trump first announced his candidacy for president in 2015. Back then, the then-host of “The Daily Show” figured the reality TV personality was a comedic “gift from heaven. But in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Wednesday, Stewart said he misjudged, failing to consider that Trump's “certainty, his ridiculousness, his shamelessness is what made him dangerous.

Colorado school shooter to be sentenced to life in prison

A former high school student convicted of first degree murder and other charges for a 2019 shooting attack inside a suburban Denver high school that killed one student and injured eight others is set to be sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole on Friday. Devon Erickson was convicted in June of all 46 charges against him, including murder in the death of Kendrick Castillo, an 18-year-old senior hailed as a hero for trying to stop the attack on a classroom at STEM School Highlands Ranch south of Denver. Prosecutors said Erickson, now 20, partnered with fellow student Alec McKinney in the May 7, 2019, shooting.